Some of you did a similar process with me last year during our November 2019 Inner Artist Retreat.
This is something very simple that you could also do with your children or grandchildren if you are at home with them.
I don't have fancy technology to do a video or tutorial, but I will try to just talk you through this process.
supplies needed:
- 1 large sheet of paper. Ideal size is 12 x 18 inches. Ideal paper weight is about 100 pounds paper weight (or less) if you have it, but you can be creative and just use whatever you have at home, or whatever you can find. I think that you could even use a paper advertisement that comes in the mail for groceries, etc. The exact size is not important, just try to make it as large as possible.
- Mod Podge or watered down glue like Elmer's. Glue sticks won't work for this project because you need to glue down paper images thoroughly all the way to the edges.
- a brush to apply the glue. Use whatever you have. About 1" size brush is ideal.
- several old magazines, newspapers, etc.
- scissors for paper cutting
Process:
Spend a little time looking through the magazines and newspapers. Tear out or cut out images that make you feel sad, or that represent loss, pain, disappointment, fear, scarcity, etc. Put them in one pile. Then tear out or cut out images that make you feel hopeful, happy, joyful, grateful, that show compassion, caring, love, abundance. Put them in another pile.
Here is my 12 x 18 paper, ready to begin. My pile of "sad" images is on the left, and my pile of "happy" images is on the right.
Begin to arrange and glue the "sad" images on one side of your large sheet of paper. And after it dries, turn it over. Begin to arrange and glue the "happy" images on the other side. Take your time. As you work on this project for the next couple weeks, be on the lookout for images and keep adding them to your collage. Try to cover the paper entirely with images on both sides. You could also draw, paint, or doodle images and words that have meaning. Remember to keep one side for "Sad" images and the other side for "Happy" images.
Glue images to paper with thinned Mod-Podge. You can also use thinned Elmer's or something like that. (Thin with water to make it easy to spread, like thinned paint.) Be sure to glue the images all the way to the edges. It will look best if you completely cover the paper with your images. After you complete one side, flip your paper over and do the other side. The paper will probably curl up on the first side, but it will lay down as you begin side 2.
This is my completed "SAD" side.
This is my completed "HAPPY" side.
Let your 2 sided collage COMPLETELY DRY overnight before beginning to fold and make the collage into a book. Your collage will not be flat at this point, but don't worry, because you can press the paper flat after you assemble the book.
Take time to sit with your collage before you begin the book assembly. What is it 'saying' to you? If you live with someone, show them your collage and explain what the images represent. Telling the story of your collage out loud will help the meaning unfold for you.
Take time to sit with your collage before you begin the book assembly. What is it 'saying' to you? If you live with someone, show them your collage and explain what the images represent. Telling the story of your collage out loud will help the meaning unfold for you.
The next phase is to FOLD the dried collage to form a book 6 x 4.5 inch size.
Fold the paper across the wide side, to form a 6 x 18 size.
Try to line up the sides and edges the best you can.
Use a rolling pin, or a wine bottle, or the edge of a spoon to press the folded edge as flat as possible.
Fold again left to right, to make a 6 x 9 size, pressing the folded edges firmly flat again.
Fold one last time, left to right, to make 6 x 4.5 size.
Your book is now folded into final size. Be sure to press or roll all the folded edges as flat as possible.
We have now folded our 2 sided 12 x 18 collage to make a 6 x 4.5 book.
Here is another view of the folded collage so you can see how it folds together. The folded edge is at the top.
The next step is to sew the spine of the book so we can cut the pages apart.
First, using an awl, or the tip of a very sharp knife, or maybe a nail, carefully punch 5 small holes down the center fold of the book. You are going through 4 layers of paper, so be careful and press firmly.
Here is a sketch to show the hole placement:
One hole should be centered, then evenly space 2 holes above and 2 holes below. ( spacing the holes 1 inch apart is ideal) Now we sew the spine of the book together.
I used waxed linen twine to sew my book spine. You probably do not have that at home, so you can substitute any thick strong thread. Since we are doing this during the Pandemic, most craft supply stores are closed, so we will need to be creative about this. Silk beading twine, embroidery floss, thin leather lacing, shoe lacing, strong yarn, twine, or even thick waxed dental floss might work. You need about 20 inches of twine for the book spine. Thread your twine through the largest needle you have. (I used a tapestry needle with a large eye)
Start at the bottom hole,weaving your needle and twine in and out of the holes to the top, then come back down through the holes. Leave 2 pieces of twine (several inches each) at the bottom of the book. You will tie a knot in the twine after you have cut open the pages and trimmed the edges.
this photo shows the sewn spine of book.
Now use your scissors to carefully cut open the pages that are folded.
After all the pages are cut, you can trim the pages to make them as even as possible.
The final steps will be Book Finishing.
After your pages are cut open and trimmed with scissors,
Tie a knot in the twine at the bottom of your book. If you want to, you can slide a bead or 2 onto the twine for decoration. Beads are optional.
The next step is painting the edges of the pages with acrylic paint. This will help seal the cut edges and it also gives your book a finished look. The pages will not be perfectly cut, but that it part of the handmade quality of your book. You can use any color, but I used metallic silver acrylic paint on the page edges of this book. Painting the edges is optional but I think it gives a nice finish.
After the painted page edges are dry, carefully pierce 2 holes on the front cover in the center, about 1 inch from the right side.
Sew a button with 2 holes on with twine. A shell or horn button looks especially nice to me for this book.
Use about 20 inches of twine to loop around the center of your book spine twine, then wrap it around the button to close the book. You can slide on a bead between knots at the end of for decoration if desired.
This shows the finished book with the twine opened
Here is my finished book with the twine wrapped around the button closure in the front.
Now comes the revealing part...
Take time during the next few weeks to "read" through your book each day. You will notice many things.
It is not perfect. The images have some imperfections, bubbles and wrinkles, and the pages are not cut perfectly. Some of the images and words are cut off and some of them are upside down. It does not look like you thought it would look. And now that is is finished, you can see how the "sad" images are mixed with the "happy" images. So it is a metaphor for life...a mixture of surprises and things we cannot control. But there is beauty mixed with the pain. You might want to look up the term "wabi-sabi". How can you find beauty within the imperfections and disappointments in life?
PS: The week after my book was finished, I decided to add this prayer poem that was written by Christine Valters Paintner from AbbeyOfTheArts.com:
Praise Song for the Pandemic*
Praise be the nurses and doctors, every medical staff bent over flesh to offer care, for lives saved and lives lost, for showing up either way,
Praise for the farmers, tilling soil, planting seeds so food can grow, an act of hope if ever there was,
Praise be the janitors and garbage collectors, the grocery store clerks, and the truck drivers barreling through long quiet nights,
Give thanks for bus drivers, delivery persons, postal workers, and all those keeping an eye
on water, gas, and electricity,
Blessings on our leaders, making hard choices for the common good, offering words of assurance,
Celebrate the scientists, working away to understand the thing that plagues us, to find an antidote, all the medicine makers, praise be the journalists keeping us informed,
Praise be the teachers, finding new ways to educate students from afar, and blessings on parents holding it together for them,
Blessed are the elderly and those with weakened immune systems, all those who worry for their health, praise for those who stay at home to protect them,
Blessed are the domestic violence victims, on lock down with abusers, the homeless and refugees,
Praise for the poets and artists, the singers and storytellers, all those who nourish with words and sound and color,
Blessed are the ministers and therapists of every kind, bringing words of comfort,
Blessed are the ones whose jobs are lost, who have no savings, who feel fear of the unknown gnawing,
Blessed are those in grief, especially who mourn alone, blessed are those who have passed into the Great Night,
Praise for police and firefighters, ambulance drivers, and all who work to keep us safe, praise for all the workers and caregivers of every kind,
Praise for the sound of notifications, messages from friends reaching across the distance,
Praise be our four-footed companions, with no forethought or anxiety, responding only in love,
Praise for the seas and rivers, forests and stones who teach us to endure,
Give thanks for your ancestors, for the wars and plagues they endured and survived, their resilience is in your bones, your blood,
Praise every moment of stillness and silence, so new voices can be heard, praise the chance at slowness,
Praise be the birds who continue to sing the sky awake each day, praise for the primrose poking yellow petals from dark earth,
Blessed are the dolphins returning to Venice canals, the sky clearing overhead so one day
we can breathe deeply again,
And when this has passed may we say that love spread more quickly than any virus ever could, may we say this was not just an ending but also a place to begin.
by Christine Valters Paintner, Abbey of the Arts * a work in progress.
written March 2020
If you want to add the poem to your collage book, Christine has given permission to use it, just include her name as the author.
I printed the poem in phrases that would fit on my book pages, cut it apart and glued it on my collage pages. Here are a couple final finished page examples with Christine's prayer poem:
So now, my little Pandemic Collage book project has become a PANDEMIC PRAYER BOOK with even deeper meaning than it did before I added Christine's prayer poem to the pages. I have been reading through it daily, using Christine's poem as a guide to pray for all of us around the world as we are seeking to support each other during this time of liminal space. When this pandemic is over, I will keep this book as a reminder of these weeks during the Spring of 2020.
Thank you for your interest in this project. If you finish a book, please send me a photo and your impressions. I would love to hear from you.
EASTER WEEK 2020 STATIONS OF THE CROSS Pandemic book.
I enjoyed the book process so much, that after I finished making my little Pandemic Collage Prayer Book, I made another kind of book during Holy Week leading up to Easter. There were so many newspaper articles written about the COVID-19 Pandemic, and the overwhelming sadness of it all this year helped me feel solidarity with Jesus in his final hours. So I made a couple STATIONS OF THE CROSS books. (I gave one to a friend.)
These books were made very similar to the Pandemic books, but since it was not a collage, It was a more simple process:
supplies needed:
- my book used 8 sheets of paper, 6 inches tall x 9 inches wide. Ideal paper weight is about 100 pounds paper weight (or less) You can make your book as many pages thick as you want to, but since I was using the 14 Stations of the Cross, I needed 8 pieces of paper.
- Mod Podge or watered down glue like Elmer's.
- a brush to apply the glue. Use whatever you have. About 1" size brush is ideal.
- several newspapers.
- scissors for paper cutting
- watercolor and brush
I didn't make photos of my process, but I simply glued newspaper articles and editorial cartoons, etc, on both sides of my sheets of paper to completely cover it. After it dried thoroughly overnight, I trimmed the edges. I folded each piece of paper to make pages that were 6" tall and 4.5" wide. I followed the same procedure as the book above, piercing holes down the center fold, sewing the pages together, trimming the final pages to make the book look pleasing, painting the edges of each page with acrylic paint, sewing a button on the front cover page and tying beads on the twine.
After I finished the book assembly, I typed and printed prayers and reflection thoughts about the Stations of the Cross and how it relates to the current pandemic. After gluing them on the pages, I watercolored each page until it felt finished.
Here are a couple finished pages:
This is a view of the center page showing the sewn binding down the center fold. 9 inches wide and 6 inches tall, so each page is only 4.5 inches wide.
This is a view of the cover showing the binding down the center spine and the button closure and twine that I use to wrap around the button for closure.
This is a close up that shows you the binding.
You could make a pandemic journal using newspaper for the background and glue plain paper on each page to write on. Or make a pandemic scrapbook of interesting poems and prayers, etc that are meaningful for you during this pandemic.
Thank you for looking at my projects. Creativity is my outlet and it makes my heart sing, even during these times of sadness and grief.
-stay safe and healthy until we can journey again,
from Audrey
